Liliana Wilson is a visual artist best known for her intricate drawings with surrealistic renderings. She was born in Valparaíso, Chile where she began drawing at the age of eight. Liliana’s early paintings sought to process the trauma she had witnessed as a young woman in Chile. In her native country, Liliana experienced the dramatic political changes that followed the 1970 election of Salvador Allende and the subsequent military coup which initiated a wave of human rights violations. She immigrated to the United States in 1977 and pursued studies in art at Austin Community College and Texas State University. Liliana’s art has been exhibited in the United States, Mexico, Argentina and Italy.
Liliana’s current work represents images of children as immigrants and refugees, transitioning into creatively crafted unknown worlds. Occupying liminal spaces, they are portrayed en un viaje, a journey of integration toward wholeness and arriving in new contextual spaces they can finally call home. These immigrants understand the impossibility for them to remain in their places of origin, yet their spirits soar with the possibility of realizing a new dream of life based on love, hope and healing.
Read more about the artist on page 10.
Commentary By Dr. Roberto Haro
“ Thank you for the highly informative piece of Liliana Wilson. Her orientation and persistence in artistic impression underscores the dark moments in the history of Chile. The oppressive political and military activities in Chile resulted in a diaspora of thousands of people. Among the emigrants are people with creative talent like Liliana. What is unique about Liliana Wilson is a transcendence from spectator and participant to artistic commentator.
Her association with the low-income and poor, and with the dispossessed is part of a significant transnational repertoire of compelling faces and images that underscore the human side of oppression. Yet the charming and familiar face that greets the viewer is not just repetition, but a reminder of a strong voice and message that resonate with us. It is important to state that Liliana takes a somber time and provides compelling messages that there is hope and promise for the future. That is but one of the core messages that can be experienced in her art, and that adds to her importance as an artistic commentator on a personal, political and international scale.
…kudos on another immensely satisfying piece on a unique and talented artist.
En amistad,
Roberto”
